1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an article feeding apparatus for arraying and feeding articles having nearly spherical shape or nearly elliptical shape, such as fruits including orange, apple, tomato, water melon, pear, persimmon, peach and potato, or balls for sports including tennis, soccer, baseball and table tennis.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hitherto, as an apparatus for feeding fruits, as shown in FIG. 7, there was an apparatus for mounting fruits A . . . between dispersion belts 30, 30 stretched in a V-form opened upward, arraying the fruits A . . . while dispersing back and forth by the dispersion belts 30, 30 to transfer onto an array belt 31, and moving the fruits A . . . sequentially from the array belt 31 to a sorting conveyor 33.
However, if the surface of the fruit A is coated with polishing wax, the contact resistance between the fruit A and the dispersion belt 30 is large, and it is hard to disperse the fruit A mounted between the dispersion belts 30, 30 back and forth, or correct the mounting position of the fruit A.
The fruit A having a nearly elliptical shape is large in contact area with the dispersion belt 30, and it may be conveyed in a state contacting with one dispersion belt 30 only, and the fruit A may not be arrayed and mounted in the center of the conveying route.
Further, if attempted to center (align) the fruit A put on the array belt 31 by means of guide plates 32 stretched at both sides, since the contact resistance is large, the fruit A is only inclined or erected, and it is hard to correct its mounting position.
Accordingly, since the fruit A is mounted in an offset state to the central mounting surface of the sorting conveyor 33, or the fruit A is mounted in an erect state, it is hard to inspect or take the entire surface of the fruit A by camera or the like, and the sorting job cannot be done accurately.
Or, due to the contact resistance between adjacent fruits A . . . , or contact resistance against the guide plate 32, some of the fruits A . . . are conveyed in a gathered state, or the interval of the fruits A mounted back and forth may be irregular, and it was difficult to keep constant the interval and number of fruits A.
Other feeding method is shown in FIG. 8, in which a dispersion conveyor 35 is oscillated by a vibration generator 34 disposed in the lower part of the conveying route, and the fruits A . . . mounted on the dispersion conveyor 35 are dispersed back and forth and transferred onto an array conveyor 36, and are sequentially transferred from the array conveyor 36 to a sorting conveyor 33, but by using such apparatus, since the contact area with the dispersion conveyor 35 varies with the size, shape and kind of the fruits A, the feed speed is fast when the contact area is large and the feed speed is slow when the contact area is small, and it was hard to maintain constant the feed rate of the fruits A.